How to manually create a Queue Deployment

A Queue Deployment installs and maintains a local print queue on every PC that should have it, so you do not have to set up queues by hand. You can create one manually, as described here, or copy a queue that is already installed and printing correctly on a PC running PDAgent. Copying is usually quicker when you need a particular manufacturer’s driver and printing preferences, because they come with the queue. See How to copy an existing Windows print queue to a new Queue Deployment.

A manually created Queue Deployment installs queues with the driver’s default settings and printing preferences. You can copy different preferences into it later from an installed queue.

Before you start

• PDAgent must be installed on the user PCs. The PDAgent carries out the deployment and updating tasks.
• For a manufacturer’s driver, the driver must be stored in the Print Director database. Stored drivers are listed under Print Management > Stored Drivers in Resource Manager. A driverless queue (Microsoft IPP Class Driver) needs no stored driver.

Step 1: Choose how print jobs are captured

1. Open Resource Manager.
2. In the tree on the left, expand Print Management > Print Queue Management and click Queue Deployments.
3. On the right, click Add. The New queue deployment window asks how print jobs are captured and where they wait for release. Choose one option and click OK:

Option	How it works	Use it when
Capture by local PDAgent – jobs wait on the PD Server	The queue sends jobs over IPP to the PDAgent on the user’s PC. Held jobs are uploaded to the matched device’s PDServer.	Laptops, VPN users and PCs that are not always on, printers that support Download Print, or when the PDServer can reach the printers directly.
Capture by local PDAgent – jobs wait on the user’s PC	The queue sends jobs over IPP to the PDAgent on the user’s PC, and held jobs stay there. The PC must be online when the user releases the job.	Desktop PCs that stay on.
Forwards to PD queue – jobs wait on the server PDAgent	The queue sends jobs over secure IPP to a PDAgent on a server. Users see the sending status in their Windows queue, and the job disappears from it once spooling is complete.	You already have a PD queue set up on a print server and want PCs to print to it.
Manual configuration	You configure the driver and port yourself, with full control.	You need a specific port setup, for example a Standard TCP/IP port to a device or a server.

The deployment type is fixed once the deployment is created. To change it later, delete the deployment and add a new one.

Windows Protected Print: the first three options support Windows Protected Print mode with a driverless configuration. Manual configuration supports it only when the port is IPP and the configuration is driverless.

Step 2: Name the deployment

The Queue deployment window opens. At the top:

• Deployment name: the name of the deployment as it appears in Resource Manager.
• Deployment type: the option you chose in Step 1, shown for reference as Capture on local PDAgent (IPP), Sends to chosen PD queue (IPP) or Manual port configuration.
• Installed queue name: the name the queue gets on each PC. Choose Use deployment name to use the deployment name; the resulting queue name is shown alongside.
• Receiving PD queue (Forwards to PD queue only): the PD queue on the server that jobs are sent to. See How to create a PD queue. For this type, Installed queue name can also be set to Use destination queue name, so the queue on each PC has the same name as the PD queue.

Step 3: Choose who gets the queue

In the Deployment scope section:

• Auto deploy controls which PCs get the queue installed automatically:
  • Deploy to all PDAgents: every PC running PDAgent.
  • Selected deployment zones: only PCs in the zones you tick on the Deployment zones tab.
  • Do not auto deploy: no PC gets the queue automatically.
• Self install controls whether users can install the queue themselves from the Install print queue option in the PDAgent Client:
  • Not allowed: users cannot install it themselves.
  • Allowed for all PDAgents: users on any PC running PDAgent can install it.
  • Allowed for selected deployment zones: only users on PCs in the zones you tick on the Deployment zones tab can install it.

The Deployment zones tab appears when Auto deploy is set to Selected deployment zones, or when it is set to Do not auto deploy and Self install is set to Allowed for selected deployment zones. It does not appear with Deploy to all PDAgents.

In the Updating and deleting queues section:

• Tick Auto update queues to update every linked queue automatically when the deployment changes.
• Tick Auto remove queues if not in zones or the Deployment is deleted to remove the queue from PCs that no longer match the deployment, or from every PC when the deployment is deleted. Queues that users installed themselves with Self install are never removed automatically.

Step 4: Set the PD settings

On the PD settings tab, set the options that every queue created by this deployment inherits:

• Match to Device: the device the deployed queues are matched to. Tick Matched to Fiery IP address if the queue prints to a Fiery controller.
• Secure release: whether jobs are held for release at the printer. Use matched device setting follows the setting of the matched device.
• Alter to b&w and Alter to duplex: tick to change every job to black and white, or to duplex.
• Jobs wait at: where held jobs wait for release. Choose PDAgent (default) to keep them on the PDAgent that captured them, or PDServer: followed by the server name to upload them to that PDServer. See How to store held print jobs on the PDServer.

For Forwards to PD queue there is no PD settings tab. These settings always come from the Receiving PD queue you chose in Step 2, so change them on that PD queue.

Step 5: Set up the driver for each platform

The Platform configs tab lists one driver configuration per Windows platform. Scroll the list sideways to see all of its columns: Platform, Driver name, Last driver data update, Copied driver data, Copied printing preferences, Set as default and Ports.

• For the three capture and forward options, Print Director creates a driverless configuration for Windows x64, Windows x86 and Windows ARM64 automatically, using the Microsoft IPP Class Driver (inbox). If that suits you, there is nothing more to do on this tab.
• For Manual configuration the list starts empty. Add a configuration for each platform the queue will be installed on.

To add a platform, click Add, choose the Platform (Windows x64, Windows x86 or Windows ARM64; only platforms without a configuration are listed) and click OK. To change one, select it and click Edit. Either way, the Platform configuration window opens:

1. Choose the driver:
   • Tick Driverless (Microsoft IPP Class Driver) for a driverless queue, or
   • untick it and choose a stored driver from the Driver list.
2. Optionally, under Clone driver settings and printing preferences from existing queue, click Copy settings now from queue to take the driver settings and printing preferences from a queue that is already installed. Last copy settings shows when this was last done. If Auto update queues is ticked for the deployment, copying new settings overwrites the driver data and printing preferences on queues that are already deployed.
3. On the Win queue settings tab, optionally set the standard Windows queue settings: Set print queue as default printer, Printer is shared with a Share name, Location and Comment.
4. On the Port configuration tab:
   • For the capture and forward options, there is nothing to set up except encryption. Tick Encrypt print traffic with TLS (IPPS) to encrypt the print traffic.
   • For Manual configuration, choose the Port type. A driverless queue always uses IPP: while Driverless (Microsoft IPP Class Driver) is ticked, the Port type is set to IPP and cannot be changed.
     • Standard TCP/IP ports (RAW/LPR): use Add, Edit and Delete to manage one or more ports. Clicking Add opens the Standard TCP/IP Port window with defaults that send jobs to the PDAgent on the user’s own PC: Address 127.0.0.1, Protocol LPR, Port 515 and Set LPR queue to print queue name ticked. Leave these defaults so jobs wait on that PC. To make jobs wait at a server instead, change only the Address to the address of a server running PDAgent. The same window also has LPR Byte Counting Enabled (double spool) and SNMP Status Enabled options, which you can normally leave unticked.
     • IPP: enter the IPP URI of the destination, for example ipps://printer-host:631/ipp/print. Start the address with ipps:// to encrypt the print traffic with TLS.
5. Click OK.

Manufacturer drivers over IPP: when a manufacturer’s driver is selected with an IPP port, the queue installs on Windows as an Internet Port queue, which is not compatible with Windows Protected Print mode. If the receiving Print Director queue requires IPP authentication, Windows stores the credentials per port for the whole PC, so every user of that PC shares one set. Use a driverless configuration where either of these matters.

Step 6: Choose deployment zones

If the Deployment zones tab is shown, open it and tick each zone this deployment applies to. Each zone shows its Name, whether it includes or excludes the PCs it matches (Include or exclude) and which PCs it matches (Match hosts). Use Add, Edit and Delete to manage the zones themselves.

Step 7: Save

Click OK to save the Queue Deployment.

What next

• To control which PCs receive the queue automatically, see the auto-deploy articles: by specific PDAgents, by hostname matching, by IP range, or by specific users.
• To change the default printing preferences from an installed queue, see Update a Queue Deployment from an existing queue.
• For every setting on the Queue deployment window, see Queue Deployment Configuration.

 

Document revision date: 2026/10/23 Software version: 2.5.15.3

How to manually create a Queue Deployment